This project aligns with SDG 3 to give highly-stressed adolescents a calming retreat with animals, proven by research to lower student anxiety and clear minds for better learning focus.
Design Manifesto
Halve It Component:
My design project focuses heavily on the Wellness pillar of our schools framework.
Wellness means looking after ourselves, not just staying away from colds. For the Middle School students, it means feeling calm instead of stressed and keeping high energy levels. Keeping our feelings steady is also very important. Wellness improves learning and improves mental health. At ages nearing or at teenage years Wellness is very important. Wellness helps clear the mind and means keeping calm instead of feeling stressed, and adolescents are at a time of increased anxiety.
Sustainable Development Goal:
SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing
The Cluckingham palace meets SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) because birds calm the mind and soft feathers can be good for sensory needs. It has been proven that birds improve mental health and happy life, which is good for when students come back in class all calm and clear-minded from a visit to Tweet Retreat. Research shows that spending time with animals clears teenage minds and improves a bland classroom.
School Context:
If you look closely at the new school campus design, there's a HUGE problem: there’s no chicken coop. Now you might think that having a chicken coop is weird but it's been proven that 82% of students turn to a classroom pet when they feel sad and 93% of teachers report a noticeable decrease in stress and anxiety after bringing in a classroom pet.
Sometimes Middle School students just need a break from people, so a great way to do that is birds. It's been proven that birds help clear minds and calm a high-stressed environment. Chicken do very well in school areas and also lay eggs for the school. It's a win win!
Ancient China:
In Ancient China, Taoism is deeply intertwined with flora and fauna. Instead of seeing humans as superior, Taoism is about harmony with all living things. Taoism welcomes new things, because it views the universe as always changing.
Taoism welcomes animals because it believes that nature should live in harmony with humans. The Taoism's four guardians are the Azure Dragon(East/Spring), the White Tiger(West/Autumn), the Vermilion(South/Summer), the Black Tortoise(North/Winter).
The three treasures in Taoism are having compassion and treating others with kindness, and frugality by taking only what you need and living simply, and humility by not putting yourself above others. Taoism believes that taking care of nature is taking care of ourselves, and to stop to just breathe and enjoy the beauty of nature.
My design combines with Taoism because animals and adolescents should live with each other and be able to breathe and just be together, instead of adolescents stressing about each other and just staying calm and responsible and happy. Students should be more in nature which is shown to decrease stress with birds like budgies and finches.
A bird aviary and a chicken coop would be a great addition to living school and encourage being more in nature and that connects to Taoism, so living school can be a school that is living.
The Problem
How do we improve the wellness of Middle school students, teachers and staff by creating a wellbeing space to increase calm and clear-minded school through birds?
Our Sustainable Solution
The design solution is the Cluckingham Palace and Tweet Retreat are both for birds. One would be a chicken coop with six chickens and the other would be a bird aviary with budgies and finches. An aviary in the rainforest will be located at carrington street brown and jolly. It will be eco-friendly and plastic free.
The Chicken coop will feature smooth wood, fresh hay and laying boxes. The Bird aviary will be wire melting into wood, with sanded over perches from trees in there. The coop will be grass floor and wooden shelter with perches and comfortable laying boxes. The bird aviary will be a healthy amount of space and enough room to.
When a student steps into the Bird Aviary they’re thoughts are drowned out by the sweet calls of budgies and finches. The soothing tweets and calls to one another help you feel relaxed and full of life. The Chicken coop is also soothing but in a different way. When you step into the coop and watch the feathers slowly falling you also watch your worries melt away. The soft feel of the chickens feathers help you focus on the sensory feel instead of feeling high stress and anxiety.